This disc is one of four releases on the budget-priced Eloquence label
containing Radu Lupu’s 1970s recordings of all five Beethoven Piano
Concertos. Lupu’s performances were widely acclaimed (though not at
the top of anyone’s tree, so far as I can recall) when they first appeared,
and it is good to see them back in circulation. They were taped variously
between 1971 (No 3) and 1980 (No 1, the only digital recording
in the set) and, with the exception of No 3 (in which Lawrence Foster
conducts the London Symphony Orchestra), featured the Israel Philharmonic
Orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta. In fact Decca proudly proclaim
these (with their prominent photo-logo of Mehta) to be part of their
‘Zubin Mehta Edition’, thereby attributing (by implication) the lion’s
share of the honours to the conductor rather than the soloist!

The disc we are considering here is the only one in
the series to couple two Concertos: the remainder offer us a variety
of other Beethoven orchestral or piano music by way of fill-ups. No
2 includes (very generously) an almost complete Prometheus, on
466 681-2. No 3 (fittingly, but far from generously) is followed
by the 32 Variations on an Original Theme, on 466 690-2. No 5,
the so-called ‘Emperor’, is topped up with a short (but agreeably self-contained)
recital comprising the two Op 51 Rondos, and the two two-movement Sonatas
of Op 49: 466 689-2.

The two missing pieces from this list are the so-called
‘Triple Concerto’ (Op 56 in C major, for piano, violin, cello and
orchestra) and the ‘Choral Fantasy’ (Op 80 in C minor, for piano,
chorus and orchestra). So far as I am aware, Lupu has not recorded these,
but readers wishing to complete their collection may wish to note that
(very usefully) they can be found together on the (Philips) Eloquence
label – the number is 464 368-2. Arrau is the pianist in the former,
with Szeryng and Starker, and conducted by Inbal: the latter comes from
the complete Brendel-Haitink set.

Throughout these recordings, it is obvious that Lupu
identifies with what Beethoven is saying: he always allows us to hear
the composer’s voice loud and clear, as only the greatest recreative
artists do. The vitality, the tranquillity; the magic, the surprises;
the anger, the rejoicing – it’s all there. Listen to the solemnity of
No 1’s slow movement, or the jollity of its finale – the full range
of Beethoven’s writing comes across, without exaggeration, and with
none of the irritating idiosyncrasies which ‘big’ personalities of the
keyboard so often inflict upon us.

The Fourth Concerto is surely the greatest (certainly
the most innovative) of these pieces. This is the piece in which the
piano dares to speak before the orchestra – lovely phrasing from Lupu
here, though the voicing is not absolutely perfect – only to be answered
by the orchestra in the remote key of B major (Mehta suitably hushed,
if a little impatient to move on) as if in an adjacent building. I’ve
always loved the way the first movement’s second theme ambles through
every imaginable key, creating a sense of poetic journeying and questioning:
something both artists draw out keenly here, despite some imperfect
orchestral discipline. And what a slow movement! This confrontation
between aggressive orchestra (unison, dotted, forte…) and imperturbable
piano (harmony, legato, pianissimo…) resolves itself through the soloist’s
patient pleading: a romantic drama which is years ahead of its time,
and perfectly captured here! As for Beethoven’s slipping tip-toe into
the finale – unnoticed, by virtue of starting in the wrong key! – Mehta’s
stage whispering is very nearly spoilt by imprecise ensemble.

You’ll find wider-ranging performances (certainly better
drilled performances) in the catalogue, but there are times when cautious
artists (those who are determined at all costs NOT to superimpose their
personalities on the music) are to be preferred to those whose mountains
are always high and whose valleys are always deep. That’s how it is
here: these are performances one can live with – warts and all.

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